Country works when citizens are rational

July 24, 2014 at 2:24 a.m.

Editor, the Advocate:

Why has it been possible that Republican lies keep on being repeated no matter how often they have been refuted? A number of recent Victoria Advocate letter writers echo outright lies to make the case that we should vote Republican in the next election.

A few examples:

President Obama has been the biggest spending president in history. False. Year to year, spending under President Obama has been less than 1 percent. That's the lowest rate of increase since President Eisenhower.

President Obama is an imperial president with all of his executive orders. False. He has issued fewer executive orders than either President George W. Bush or President Reagan.

President Obama has been horrible for business. False. Corporate profits are up 171 percent since President Obama took office and are at their highest levels - relative to the size of economic growth since 1947. The economy is recovering month by month.

"Obamacare" is unconstitutional. False. The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed by the president, and the Supreme Court ruled that it is in fact constitutional.

Those who repeat these kinds of lies must want to believe them even though they know they are not true. They've created an alternative reality where facts don't matter and science doesn't matter, history doesn't matter, math doesn't matter. And that's what is dangerous. Our country works when its citizens are rational.

In the next election, it should be remembered that it isn't President Obama who has created the current state of gridlock but those who purposely subvert the facts to suit their own purposes.